By Kim Palmer
CLEVELAND, July 25 (Reuters) – Ohio prosecutors have offered
accused Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro a plea deal to avoid a
trial on charges he abducted three women and brutalized them
over a period of about a decade, two Cleveland television
stations reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
Avoiding a trial would spare the women from testifying about
years of alleged abuse in Castro’s home. The women were freed
from his house on May 6 along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered
with one of the women.
WKYC-TV said the deal would not include the death penalty.
WOIO-TV said a decision on the proposal was imminent.
If an agreement is reached, it would be presented in court
on Friday, both stations said.
Lawyers for Castro, and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which brought
the charges, said at a court hearing on Wednesday that they were
talking about a deal but gave no details.
Castro’s lawyers have said they were willing to consider an
agreement under which he would plead guilty to some charges.
Castro, 53, is charged with 977 counts including kidnapping
and repeated rape. He is also charged with murder under a fetal
homicide law for allegedly forcing one of the women to miscarry.
The murder charge could carry the death penalty.
(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by Greg McCune and Steve
Orlofsky)
